Sacked chef wins £25,000 from Sting and Trudie

Sting and his wife have been ordered to pay nearly £25,000 to their former chef who was sacked after becoming pregnant.

Jane Martin, 42, said she was 'cast out' by the rock star and Trudie Styler, whose 'cruel' treatment destroyed her world.

She won her case for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal two months ago, when the couple formally known as Mr and Mrs Sumner were found guilty of 'shameful conduct'.

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In his ruling yesterday, chairman James Simpson said the tribunal viewed the discrimination as being 'of the most serious type'.

He said he was surprised that Miss Martin and her legal team had asked for just £10,000 - and awarded her £24,944.

Miss Styler responded by saying the award was 'virtually meaningless', as the couple were appealing the decision. Miss Martin, from Winchester, Hampshire, was employed as their chef for eight years on £28,000 a year.

She said things started to go wrong when she became pregnant in 2005, and then had to take time off with a stomach bug.

At the time of her sick leave, Miss Styler allegedly said: 'Who the f*** does she think she is? She's my chef in the UK. She needs to be available if I need her, or she should rethink her position.'

Miss Martin explained how staff at the couple's 300-acre Wiltshire mansion, Lake House, lived in fear of Miss Styler, who had a 'grandiose ego'.

The chef, who was pregnant with her son during this time, also told the tribunal that the stress of working for Miss Styler made her fear having a miscarriage.

She claimed that she had been made to work 14-hour days while heavily pregnant. Two months before her due date, she had to take a train and taxi from Lake House to London, just to prepare soup and salad for Miss Styler.

In April last year, the couple's management company, Lake House Estate, which employed Miss Martin, told her she would be made redundant as the couple did not require so many chefs.

But Mr Simpson said in his ruling that Miss Styler had attempted to hound out Miss Martin with a lengthy 'campaign of sex discriminatory conduct'.

'The driving force leading to Miss Martin's dismissal was the unwillingnessof Mrs Sumner to tolerate adjustments which might be required to enable her to cope with the physical demands of her pregnancy and later need to consider childcare arrangements,' he said.

' The respondent mounted a defence which it knew was both dishonest and unfounded.'

A spokesman for Miss Styler said: 'The financial award ... is virtually meaningless since the whole case is subject to appeal which was granted in response to our submission that the original hearing displayed bias against Trudie.

'Given the fact of that pending appeal, it is our belief and that of our legal team that the remedies hearing should never have taken place.

'It remains Trudie's position that she, as a woman and a mother, has never in her life sexually discriminated against anyone and never would do so.'